An oven can be one of the most difficult kitchen appliances to clean. Food that splatters onto the interior surfaces of the oven during cooking usually becomes baked-on, making the removal thereof particularly difficult. If the oven is not cleaned often, the amount of baked-on food can build up rapidly, thereby increasing the cleaning difficulty.
There are several known methods for facilitating the removal of baked-on food from the interior surfaces of ovens. The most widely used methods involve pyrolysis or the application of highly alkaline chemical oven cleaners. Although these known methods are relatively effective for removing baked-on food from the interior surfaces of ovens, they present several disadvantages.
Many ovens feature a high-temperature “self-cleaning” cycle during which baked-on foods are pyrolyzed (i.e., decomposed) to carbon ash residue that can be wiped from the interior surfaces of the oven once it cools. To be effective, such pyrolytic heating cycles must maintain the temperature within the oven cavity above about 480° C. (900° F.) for a period of approximately 60 minutes.
One of the disadvantages of using pyrolysis to remove baked-on food from the interior surfaces of ovens is the tendency for the porcelain enamels applied to the interior surfaces of ovens to craze and in some cases flake off when they are repeatedly exposed to such elevated temperatures. Moreover, ovens having pyrolytic heating cycles are more expensive to manufacture than conventional ovens due to the need for extra insulation. Furthermore, such ovens are more expensive to operate than conventional ovens because of the power consumed to generate and maintain the high temperatures during the pyrolytic heating cycle. Such ovens can also present safety concerns because the exterior surfaces of the oven can become quite hot during the pyrolytic heating cycle.
Another method for facilitating the removal of baked-on food from the interior surfaces of ovens involves the use of “catalytic” enamel compositions such as the composition disclosed in Faust, U.S. Pat. No. 4,084,975. Catalytic enamel compositions such as disclosed in Faust that have been fired on the interior surfaces of ovens have a porous texture and contain a substantial quantity of metallic oxides that can catalyze the oxidation of food material that is spilled or spattered on the surface of the enamel. In operation, food material is absorbed into the porous enamel surface where the catalytic metallic oxides catalyze oxidation of the food material at a substantially lower temperature than is required for pyrolytic enamels.
One of the disadvantages of the use of catalytic enamels on the interior surfaces of ovens is that the pores in the enamel can rapidly become saturated and clogged with food material, which significantly diminishes the ease with which the enamel can be cleaned. Furthermore, because the surface of a catalytic enamel coating is porous, it is readily subject to staining.
The other widely used method for removing baked-on food from the interior surfaces of ovens involves the use of highly alkaline chemical oven cleaners. Most oven cleaners of this type include significant quantities of caustics, such as sodium hydroxide and/or potassium hydroxide. While such products are relatively effective in their ability to remove baked-on food from the interior surfaces of ovens, they are highly alkaline (pH typically greater than about 12) and therefore present safety hazards. Fumes from such products, which are best used when the oven is warm, can irritate the eyes and throat and can also cause chemical skin burns. Moreover, the resulting product of the chemical reaction between these cleaners and baked-on food is unpleasant to handle.
There exists a need for a composition that can be applied to the interior surfaces of oven cavities and other articles from which baked-on foods can be removed without the need for pyrolysis or highly alkaline cleaners.